My dear friend, conductor Lowell Graham has what he calls his 30-second rule.

"If something does not grab me in in the first 30 seconds of listening, I do not continue. That can be of compositional value, recording, performance and is certainly the combination of all those attributes."

Now that's pretty sound advice though at first I thought it more of a snap judgment. Then I thought it through. 30 seconds sounds like a short time but sit down sometimes and try it. Half a minute of boring or poorly recorded music should be more than ample time to figure out if it's worth your time to continue. It certainly works for me. Life's too short for uninteresting music. Especially when there's a world of wonderful music to be enjoyed.